Study shows people who enjoy life live longer

If you’re the kind of person who feels happy, positive and enthusiastic about life, then you’re in luck.

A recent study by University College London found that people who enjoy life the most are three times more likely to live longer than those who enjoy it the least – regardless of age, sex, or wealth.

The nine-year study involved 10,000 English people between the ages of 50 and 100. Volunteers were interviewed three times between 2002 and 2011. Through a series of questions they were assessed on their psychological well-being and happiness levels. Researchers then split the respondents into three groups according to their happiness levels.

Out of the people with the greatest enjoyment of life, only 9.9% died within nine years. Out of the people with the least enjoyment of life, a much larger 28.8% died.

Professor Andrew Steptoe, who led the study, believes this could be because happy people who enjoy life the most are more likely to take care of themselves, making them physically healthier than those who neglect to do so.

Do you enjoy life, or do you find it difficult to look on the bright-side? If you find yourself typically anxious, stressed, unhappy or angry, then it may be time to ask yourself why. Are there parts of your life you could change to take away those unhappy feelings? Do you need to change your career? Break up a destructive relationship? Get help for a troubled family life?

Sometimes things happen in life that make it difficult to be a happy, positive person. Although we can’t control everything that happens to us, we can control how we deal with those events. NLP is a technique many life coaches use to help clients change the way they look at the world.

By helping you to alter your thought patterns, your life coach could help you adopt a more positive attitude to life. With an increasing number of studies linking emotional well-being with physical health, it may be beneficial for you in the long-run to think about your happiness levels now.

The researchers over at University College London believe happiness levels could be used to spot people most at risk of ill health in the future.